Golden Princess Review
Rating by category
Additional details
We could not be more satisfied than we were with this cruise. Embarkation was a little slow, but because we were inside the terminal, we were protected from the warmer weather. Disembarkation was a much quicker experience and we actually ran ahead of our allotted time.
It is great to see cruise ships coming to Melbourne and Melbournians have certainly taken to cruising in a big way. We particularly loved the more relaxed cruising experience that Aussies bring and with so many younger people who are less inclined to hog seats as they tried to fit everything in to their 24 hour days. Even though the International Cafe was extremely busy at morning coffee time, we could usually find a seat as passengers were more likely to have their tea or coffee and go rather than sit for long hours here reading or doing crosswords etc.
We did notice the more relaxed formal nights with jackets and ties/no ties being much more prevalent than the tuxedos of our previous cruise. I loved this as it makes packing so much easier. I hope that some day Princess will restrict the formal nights to only one dining venue and keep the smart casual to the others.
Cabin Review
Balcony
Lovely well maintained cabin showing only minor signs of wear. Selected this cabin because of it's close proximity to the aft pool. However due to pool surrounds maintenance and inclement weather, I only used the pool once. Temperature was just right and I was the only person in it so the isolation was most relaxing.
We did experience quite a bit of sideways rocking while in bed and a previous reviewer who had also experienced this expressed the belief that it may have been due to the wind catching the Sky-walkers nightclub. This seems very feasible to me as we had not had this on a previous Princess cruise through the North Sea with much rougher seas and swells.
Port Reviews
Melbourne
Embarked and disembarked in Melbourne and considering the huge number of passengers, it went smoothly.